The opening on The Prestige.

The Prestige is about to friends, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) who are assistants of a magician along with Roberts’s wife, Julia Angier (Piper Perabo).
Julia dies in one of the magicians’ acts and Robert blames Alfred for her death. This spirals into a rivalry between them two, and as they become professional magicians they sabotage each others performances.

The first location we see are the woods. The lighting is very dark making them seem very spooky and eary. On the floor there are many black tops hats, this gives of a sense of mystery and draws in the audience immediately making them wonder what has happened.

The theatre is decorated with red and gold and although these are commonly known to be fairly bright colours they have been dulled down, this sets the scene to be quite gloomy. The spotlight is the only light which is seen which again draws the audience in as the act is now the focus point, this gives off a clue that something may go wrong and this is going to be the storyline of the film.

Underneath the stage there is a dark basement like room. Steam is evaporating from the wall which makes the room seem old and unsafe; it could also be seen as quite scary as steam is like mist which people associate with scary films. There is no main light just the electricity that is being used in the magicians’ act, which flashes through the floor boards again and again. This then lights’ up the old mans face that is down there which is scary looking as one of his eyes is pure white.

It shows the theatre again where the electricity lights up the audiences faces, we see that they are very interested in the performance and can see the tension in their faces.

The costumes are pretty plain. We see a little girl at the start who is in an old fashioned dress from the nineteenth century which sets the time period they are trying to portray. The old man she is watching, Cutter (Michael Caine), is in a tattered waistcoat over a shirt. His sleeves are rolled up and he is wearing a tie which is loose, this gives of the impression he is a working man.  The people in the audience are dressed in casual suits and dresses, indicating that they may be of a high class. The magician and his assistant are in the traditional outfits. The magician is in a suit with a top hat and cane and his assistant is in the stereotyped 'glamorous assistant' outfit which makes her stand out as she is dressed in a very bright and sparkly outfit.

The magicians body language gives off that he is very proud of his act as at the beginning he holds out his arm and presents his equipment he is about to use in his act. He stands up straight and keeps eye contact with the audience; also his face is very serious which tells us that he takes his act seriously.
Cutter seems like a much laid back man as he has a slight smile all the time and has calm eyes.

The man with the beard who walks off stage walks very stiff and is shifty looking, this gives the impression to the viewers that he may be behind what is about to happen.

The make-up is very plain as the main characters we see are all men, this keeps is very realistic and natural.

The main props used are the water tank and padlock, bird cages and the equipment the magician uses in his act. The water tank gives of a sense of despair and panic as this is position that no one wants to be in. This adds to the drama and the viewers have sympathy for the magician. The bird cages makes Cutter seem lonely, they also add to the time period as they are old fashioned looking. The equipment used in the act is big and bold, it is also scary looking as it uses electricity which we associate with lightning.

The colours used in the opening are very dull, dark, neutral colours. The assistant is the only one dressed in bright colours so she stands out, pointing out what the part she plays is.